Fresh cut flowers begin to loose their freshness as soon as they are cut. As such, there is a desire among floral retailers and consumers to lengthen the lifetime of cut flowers. Adding preservatives to water in which the fresh cut flowers are stored is a common practice in order to extend the life of the cut flowers. These preservatives range from powders to slurries to liquids of various ingredients.
The majority of current preservatives only provide for the vase-life extension of cut flowers. The preservatives are generally singular products or various combinations of sugars (or other nutrient sources for the cut plant), ethylene inhibitors, biocides, acids, and surfactants that are added to the water used to harvest, transport, and store cut flowers until retail or consumer handling. The purpose of adding these preservatives to plain water is to extend the time that flowers remain in a “sellable” condition after initial cutting from the plant in the field or greenhouse. Some of the preservatives are used before shipping, others are used to re-hydrate flowers, and yet other preservatives are used as transport solutions and for display at retail stores.
The most common preservative used for vase-life extension of flowers is the ubiquitous sachet that is provided to consumers as an add-on to most cut flower retail purchases. Despite the abundance of package shapes, sizes, and configurations, the sachet contains primarily sucrose and a granular acid, such as citric acid. The purpose of these two ingredients is to act as a source of nutrition for the plant (sucrose) and to reduce the pH of the water beneath the stems to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. The drawback to the use of this sachet is that many types of cut flowers do not require any nutritional source after harvest, and the addition of sugar to the water beneath the flower becomes a ready source of carbohydrate for bacterial and fungal growth. Many of the current preservatives do not provide biocide or odor control for flower and vase solutions and the addition of disinfectants is often needed. This can be seen by the increase in turbidity of the water over time.
To overcome the drawbacks of existing preservative solutions for cut flowers and plants, a new floral preservative is provided. An object of the present invention is to provide a preservative that improves the life of cut flowers and plants during storage, while transported, and when in vases or other containers. (As used in this document, and unless otherwise made clear, “vase life” means the life of the cut flowers and plants in any one or in any combination of these three phases: storage, transportation, and placement in vases or other containers.) Another object is to reduce the turbidity to the liquid into which the cut flowers and plants are placed. A related object is to combine the vase-life improvement and reduction in turbidity. Still another object is to improve water uptake. A further object is to improve the “clean-ability” of vases and other containers in which cut flowers and plants are placed.